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FEBRUARY 17.  THE LIBERATOR.   27
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bers of this Society, but throughout the land, that are beating in sympathy with the slave.  You have a thousand and ten times ten thousand good wishes on your side, and the faithful aid of many.  Fresh advocates of truth and right are springing up, and more will shortly appear.  It cannot be that the advocates of the vilest and most inhuman system on earth should have their way forever.  The friends of right may be occasionally worsted; but not vanquished.  They may have their days of depression, and their hours of fear; but in the darkest times, when the thickest clouds hand over us, the sum still shines above.  While we are mourning, he is gradually absorbing the thick vapors, and turning the huge clouds of darkness into day.  The triumphing of the wicked is short.  While he exults in his successes, the eternal laws of God are silently working against him, and making sure his downfall.  The powers of good have always prevailed over the powers of evil in tho past: they will do so in the future.  We have sometimes seasons of unusual coldness.  It is not because the quantity of heat in the world is dsminished, but because the very force of the heat has broken up the great mountains of ice in the polar regions, and brought fragments near us.  But the sun is gradually melting those floating icebergs.  The cold we feel is the result of the thaw which the sum is causing.  The quantity of cold is all the while diminishing: the heat is all the while increasing: and if we can only wait awhile, we shall find the seasons warmer for ages to come, in consequence of the very process which lowered the temperature so much for a time, as to make us fear we should all be frozen to death.

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THE NEBRASKA BILL.
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A SERMON,
BY THOS. WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, 
[[italics]]Minister of the Worcester Free Church. [[/italics]]
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[[italics]] 'They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying Peace, Peace, when there was no Peace.' [[/italics]] - JER. vi. 14.

  I said that I should speak to you this evening concerning the new political question which has suddenly come up among our public affairs, like a giant's head thrust up from the ground among pigmies, in some fairy tale, filling all the horizon, and dwarfing every other visible object.  The circumstances demand a special treatment of this matter.  It would be absurd for the pulpit to apologise for seizing upon a subject of such importance. I should rather apologise for having delayed for a single week to grasp it; and for dealing with it so slightly and feebly now.

  The Romans had their Temple of Janus, which was always open in war-time, and closed again in time of peace.  The Slavery question is our Temple of Janus, and that, like the Roman Temple, is very seldom closed. If shut, it is soon re-opened, and always by an attempt on the side of Slavery; or, rather, it is like the Temple of the Arabian tale, haunted by demons, which might by opened by a bad man for a bad purpose without injury, but which, if a good man opened for a good purpose, thunders fell instantly upon his head.  This nation forgives no one for agitating Slavery, except slaveholders themselves.  Fortunately, they always do it. Again and again and again we have seen the truth, there can be no peace with Slavery.  There is the disease in the system, and it is in vain to attempt to drive it out by clearing away its eruption from the tongue. It cannot be treated thus superficially; extirpate the disease in one place, it reappears in another - even the most improbable.  When the Texas agitation ceases, then comes agitation for cold Nebraska; as when Vesuvius grows pale, an unexpected radiance glows among the snowdrifts of wintry Hecla.

  Stated briefly, the Missouri Compromise was as follows:-In 1820, the slave States wished Missouri admitted as a slave State, out of the new territory just acquired from France.  The free States objected.  Finally, the slave States said, 'Admit Missouri with slavery, and all the rest of the French territory farther North shall be freed, and in Massachusetts especially, political death was the verdict on the only members of Congress who voted for it.  Nevertheless, it passed: Missouri came in as a slave State, farther North than any other-and the rest remained free, and has been organized into States or Territories, except the proposed Territories of Nebraska and Kansas.

  In 1850, another conflict arose about the new territory gained from Mexico, still farther West, and that ended differently.  An attempt was made, but in vain, to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, and finally it was agreed that Congress should give the inhabitants of those regions the right to have slavery or not, as they pleased, when they should come in as States.  They were organized accordingly - Utah and New Mexico as Territories, and California as a State, 

  Now it is time to organize Nebraska, (settled more slowly than these other regions,) and it is proposed to repeal the original policy of 1820, prohibiting Slavery, and revert to the practice adopted in 1850, of leaving the inhabitants of this region to settle for themselves the existence or non-existence of the institution.  This unexpected proposition brings up instantly the question, Was the non-intervention policy of 1850 a temporary expedient, or the adoption of a permanent principle?  and that brings up the whole question of Slavery, in all its bearings.

  I do not mean to say much about the source from which this measure comes; but it is obvious that an ordinary political ambition cannot be its motive.  Its author is too shrewd not to see, [[italics]] first [[/italics]], that it is too early for him to be made thus conspicuous; and [[italics]] secondly [[/italics]], that no man ever rides into our Presidency on any great political measure, good or bad.  It is now fully recognized that American Presidents must not be politically prominent -- they must either be military heroes or persons of whom men ask, 'Who is he?'  If therefore we insist on finding a personal or selfish motive for this step, we must look for it beyond the ordinary incentives of political ambition.

It is a motto of European statesmen, ' [[italics]] Beware of the man who came last from St. Petersburg.'  [[/italics]]  Consider the circumstances.  The very week that is past, has brought the rumor of a general European war as just commencing.  The death-struggle of despotism may be coming,  Do you not see the intense importance to that vast European power, (of which it is say that the history of Europe for a century, is only the history of Russia)-- that the United States should be absorbed by a contest at home?  Had Kossuth obtained from us pledges of the warmest sympathy of which he ever dreamed, not one of them would be redeemed, were the country racked by such another conflict as that through which it passed in 1848.  We know little of the far-reaching power of Russia, if we suppose that we are beyond the grasp of her policy, or that the court which boasts of having a representative among the leading diplomatists of every government in Europe, can afford to be without them here.  I tell you, the Czar has not watched so carelessly the advancing foot of this Republic, preparing gradually to step forward for intervention in the affairs of Europe.  As he watches us, so we must watch him.  'If England had three millions to spend,' said a keen diplomatist, 'she had better spend it in teaching some one of her statesmen to understand Russia.'  It is almost as true of America.  And when this administration suddenly suffers a contest to be re-opened, which it had solemnly pledged itself to keep closed forever, we must possibly look further for the explanation than the politics of one continent only.  

Again, apart from the temporary excitement of the strife, think of the possible result.  Should it produce what its Southern supporters desire, the extension of slavery to Nebraska, then what greater boon could despotic Europe ask?  This continent would then be virtually divided into two republics--Atlantic and Pacific republics, with a dark belt of slavery between them.  A monstrous creature with the two extremities living, and the center lifeless; like a poor caterpillar I have seen in the first warm days of spring, with both ends of his body thawed and moveable, and the middle still frozen,

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keeping the whole motionless.  Small danger to the struggling monarchies of Europe, from a body thus paralyzed. 

  My fears are, in this case, not so dark.  I believe that the bill will pass, for many reasons, some of which I shall give.  But that it will immediately or necessarily result in the extension of slavery, I am not so sure.  It is true that the express prohibition of slavery was necessary to keep it out of Indiana and Illinois, and here I think Mr. Douglas's argument was weak.  Indiana petitioned, as you know, in 1803, to have slavery again tolerated.  But the matter has been far more thoroughly investigated, since then, in its economical relations.  It is pretty generally admitted that slavery is poor economy, except where the ordinary slave products are the staple -- cotton, sugar, tobacco--and perhaps even there.  Emigrants hate it, and the Northern climate and soil hate it.

  Moreover, the rising agitation on the subject, predicts freedom to Nebraska, even without the action of law.  You remember that North and South expected to see California, Utah, and New Mexico occupied by slavery, unless the Wilmot Proviso should be adopted.  Senator Foote said that he should not sustain the compromise measures, were he not satisfied that they would extend slavery.  Yet, freedom triumphed, and Senator Clingman, of N.C., attributed it directly to the Northern agitation which deterred slaveholders from removing into those regions with their slaves.  Will not the same result follow from Northern agitation now?  But, in that case, it is time to begin.  

  Far be it from me to say that even the slightest possibility of the introduction of slavery is not a thing of the greatest practical importance.  Like the lamented Orin Fowler, I would 'apply the Wilmot Proviso to Canada.'  Massachusetts resolved, in 1845, to leave nothing to doubt or uncertainty in this matter.  But the [[italics]] principle [[/italics]] of the thing is what chiefly interests us.  It adds another to the long chapter of Southern encroachments, of which more formidable specimens will yet come.  Every man, thirty years old, has seen a half dozen successive spasms of moral indignation at the North, in opposition to slaveholding aggression, and has seen each successive spasm yield to fear and selfishness, and fade away ineffectual..  There was the annexation of Texas.  There was the Mexican war.  There was the nomination of Gen. Taylor.  There was the Wilmot Proviso.  There was the Fugitive Slave Law.  On each of these occasions, the same things have been said, the same indignation uttered, the same threats made.  And each time men have eaten the bravest words they ever spoke, with the same quiet resignation. You think that the North is unanimous now.  Not more so than it was, at first, about Texas--not so much so as about the Wilmot Proviso.  I know not how it was in this place;  yet in not one city only, but many, there were petitions in the early stages of both those agitations bearing an array of names as excellent as your Nebraska petition.  Petitions were more numerously poured into Congress-- Legislatures acted the more promptly.  Shall we never learn anything by experience?

  The Slave Power seeks peace to the North on the same terms on which the Sybil sold her oracles to the Romans of old.  Yet not wholly so.  The Sybil being refused at first, burnt three e of her precious books and offered the rest for the same exorbitant price at last obtained.  But we of the North always accept the bargain of our Sybil; yet for a smaller measure of Peace, she demands even a larger payment year by year.

  This policy of the South has been constantly pointed our for years by Abolitionists.  It is simply this: --[[italics]] Ask more than you can expect, and you will gain more than you deserve. [[/italics]]  Nothing saved the last compromises, except the fact that they were compromises-- that there was an ultra Southern party whom they did not satisfy.  So it is now.  It is Mr. Dixon who will finally save this Nebraska Bill by demanding something so much more extravagant, that this will appear like a compromise.  [[words missing in crease]]  does not suit your interest to admit that two and two make four, just get up a party who will loudly maintain that two and two make six; and by and by statesmen will that it the best way to vote by joint resolution that two and two make five--and that will be called a 'compromise,' and will last until it is for some one's interest to repeal it.

  It would be worth many contests to us (for it would save many) if we could once thoroughly understand these tactics.  It is as if some audacious man were to claim one dollar from you for some debt you do not owe.  You refuse the dollar, but when, by his continual coming he wearieth you, you allow him one half.  Next year he comes again and asks two dollars, and for the sake of peace, you grant one dollar.  Coming a third year, he asks three dollars, and, worn out by long controversy, you reluctantly concede two dollars.  The following year you pay three dollars, and so by this judicious policy of always asking more than he expects, he always gets more than he deserves.  You say that this is an exaggeration-- that not a Yankee is to be found; with such ingenuity or audacity.  It is true; they have all bought slave plantations and gone into national politics.
  
  I differ from many of my friends, in several respects, about this bill. For one thing, I think that it will pass. For another, I think that it ought to pass--if party men have any regard for their own consistency. I cannot join with the sympathy we see given to those innocent politicians, who expected to be compromisers in 1850, and true representatives of freedom now. It is not so easy to come out of the gates of sin as to enter them. In our indignation at the supposed objects of the author of this bill, we underrate the ability shown by him. I admit the consistency of the bill with the report introducing it--and the repeated alterations in its terms. There were blunders--but the defence of the bill by its author was no blunder; it was the ablest speech (to my thinking) yet made on the subject. Its argument seems to me [[italics]]perfectly unanswerable[[/italics]], so far as the late compromises are concerned. He has shown that the principle of the Missouri Compromise was one thing, and the compromise policy a wholly distinct and irreconcilable thing. He has shown that the politicians of the nation, in 1848, deliberately rejected the Missouri Compromise policy, as a policy. He has shown that the famous amendment of Mr. Mason did not practically re-affirm the Missouri Compromise, since all the territory north of thirty-six deg. thirty min. was put into New Mexico by the same bill. He has shown that the boundaries of New Mexico and Utah were not confined to newly annexed territory, but also included territory to which the Missouri Compromise had heretofore been applied--and thus he has shown that Congress, in 1848, deliberately rejected the Missouri Compromise policy, as a permanent policy. He has shown that the famous amendment of Mr. Mason could not have been intended to cover the Missouri Compromise, and that it is at least doubtful whether it could practically have that effect, if all of Texas, north of thirty-six deg. thirty min. was ceded to New Mexico. Finally, he has brought forward facts still more important, showing that the boundaries of New Mexico and Utah were not confined to newly annexed territory, but also included territory to which the Missouri Compromise had before been applied and [[italics]]that this ordinance was therefore virtually annulled when those territories were established.[[/italics]] This is a point of the very greatest practical importance, and yet there has been no attempt made to answer this argument of Mr. Douglas, except the very inadequate one of Mr. Everett, who reasons that we may overlook this fact, because the thing was, no doubt, done inadvertently, and also upon a small scale. No Matter. If one foot of land, free under the Missouri Compromise, was laid open to slavery by the acts of 1850, then the principle was surrendered. If they sacrificed freedom hastily and heedlessly, it was nly what we told them at the time. The truth of history cannot be falsified, to save their consistency. If they swallowed the compromises, as they would French cookery, not knowing what was inside, it is not our fault. And those who then sold their birthright for that mess of pottage, or of peace, can by no means, regain their consistency now. I wish I could reason otherwise, but I cannot see how to do it. They must either acknowledge that they did

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wrongly then--or save themselves by pleading that they knew not what they did.

  I know the pleas that are made. Granted, that this aspect of the matter was not foreseen at the time, even by Senator Douglas himself. Mr. Webster had said that every feet of American soil was decided by law, as regards freedom or slavery. Mr. Calhoun had admitted the permanency of the Missouri Compromise--so had Mr. Atchison. Granted, that it was proposed last winter to organize Nebraska under the old principle, and nobody every dreamed of this innovation till Mr. Douglas came home from Russia. Grant also that the report and the bill were in absolute contradiction : and that the bill itself has been altered again and again, showing the fears of its framers, as some wild beasts are said to confuse the foot-prints round their dens, for fear of being too closely tracked. But what of all this? No matter how the measure has been brought forward, if it is to be irresistible now. No matter whether politicians expected it, so long as they might have expected it. No matter whether they committed themselves to it consciously, so long as they did it unconsciously. Compromising is like lying: 

'O what a tangled web we weave, 
When first we venture to deceive.'

And so a second compromise is necessary to save the first, and a third in order to be in harmony with the second. 

  These politicians did not intend this result. Of course not. I never heard of a man who [[italics]]intended[[/italics]] to go so far with Satan, as Satan intended to have him. But I observe that in that contest, Satan commonly has the best of it.

  It seems to me that there is an injustice committed by most of the opponents of this measure, which, though flattering our hopes in the beginning, will do no good in the end. I observe that they seem chiefly impressed by the baseness of Mr. Douglas. Now, I am chiefly impressed by the baseness of those who are turning in indignation upon Mr. Douglas for taking them at their word, and demanding a consistency which they never thought of. Having admitted, in 1850, that two and two make five, they are filled with a concentration of righteous horror at the logic with infers that four and four make ten. If Congressional non-interference with Slavery in the territories was good policy then, why not now? I think that our friends will be too hasty if they think that the whole Northern Whig party (for instance) is regenerated in an instant,--merely because it is not indignant that a Democratic administration has just made an unexpectedly high bid for Southern favor.

Let us not be easily misled. Let us look this thing in the face. Do you not know that the men who sacrificed the Wilmot Proviso in 1850 would sacrifice the Missouri Compromise now, for a sufficient object? Let the cry of Disunion be raised again--do you think they could stand against it? They were all once Anti-Slavery. I suppose that Mr. Webster was perfectly sincere when he pledged himself three times over, in 1848, that he would never consent to the admission of another slave State into the Union. I suppose that those who followed him were equally sincere. They were 'enthusiastic, but not very farsighted' politicians,--at least, in this respect. Do you remember how easily they all slid into the support of Slavery afterwards? As easily have a portion of those very men at Washington, after all their fears for the Union, put off gently again into the same current which they then thought to lead only to destruction. In what has Whig Anti-Slavery principle shown itself better than Democratic Anti-Slavery principle, that it should claim our greater confidence now? 

I know that there are men, who have heretofore compromised, whose eyes have been suddenly opened. But they are not many. Men alter less than circumstances do. While gladly accepting, then, the cooperation of any who will work against the Nebraska bill, we must say to every compromiser of 1850, who asks, Whence came this atrocity?--Thou art the man! It was that sacrifice which prepared the way for this one. You called those Peace Measures--you said, Peace, Peace--and called it treason when we vainly urged that there was no peace. There was none. Peace comes with Freedom and Righteousness;--'first pure, then, peaceable,' the Scripture says, and we have idly dreamed of being first peaceable without being pure. In 1845, men thought the Slave Power had reached its highest point of aggression, and something must be done about it. Abolitionists told them it was only one chapter in the history--that the disease was chronic, not acute; but they did not believe it. 1848 brought the same experience, with the same results. In 1850, the South demanded more, and more was given; there was the same astonishment, but Abolitionists repeated the same prediction. Finally, in 1854, men wake astonished, and say, 'Is the ghost not yet laid?--Is the Slavery question still to be agitated?' Strange, strange infatuation! Twenty years have taught them nothing. Hear it again:--Never, never, never will there be peace to this nation, until Slavery be destroyed. 

Meanwhile, what is to be done? 

There are two systems of medicine. One is allopathic; believes in curing by contraries, and aims at the suppression of agitation in the system. The other is homoeopathic, and, believing that disease is an effort of nature to overcome some obstacle, it gives for any symptom the medicine that would produce the symptom, and cures the disease by helping it to do its work in the shortest possible time. I believe in this last school, at least, in politics--in curing agitation by agitation--so to hasten the time when agitation will be unnecessary. And as the homoeopathists say that, if you aim right, you may have small doses, so even so small a thing as Senator Douglas may unconsciously start an impulse of agitation that may help the whole nation to a healthy state again. 

Speaking as an agitator, as one who believes that the only safety is to let agitation cure itself the right way, I have therefore a feeling of profound gratitude to the movers in this measure. Every such proposition only shows more clearly that there is no such thing as peace for us, on the present terms. It is not the will of a few Abolitionists, it is the necessity of the case, which makes this the one topic of discussion for the last twelve years. Slavery has one enemy which can neither be bought, blinded nor bullied, and that is itself. The old philosopher saw a certain young man walking by himself. 'Beware,' said he, 'of bad company.' Slavery must beware of itself, if it seeks safety. See how the great men who have tried to keep clear from this discussion have at last been irresistibly drawn in. 

Mr. Clay, in 1839, pronounced it moral treason to discuss the subject of slavery, and now the whole country is discussing the comparative merits of two Compromises, both relating to Slavery,--and both his children; Mr Webster boasted in the Senate that he never had and never would allude to the subject there--and now his biographer and friend is agitating the subject in the Senate in the name of Webster; Mr. Benton, in 1844, declared the subject utterly inadmissible, and now his party have discarded him as an abolitionists, and sent him into the hands of the North. Finally, this administration pledged itself against agitation, and now summons us to the conflict again. While a poor printer's boy, who declared in 1831 that he would make this the one subject of political discussion, has lived to see the nation turned into an anti-slavery debating society. I do not say that he has done it--no man has done it. The law of God has done it. The man who should still forever the surges of the unfathomable ocean would do less than the man who should still the anti-slavery discussion; for that proceeds from principles in the human soul, which shall endure when there is a new heaven and a new earth, 'and there is no more sea'! 

But think what we have passed through. All the toil, agitation, self-torture, humane men 'conquering their prejudices,' the great frame of Daniel Webster breaking down at last beneath the load his ambition put upon it; and all in vain--swept away in a day by the law of God all-conquering. As in old Rome, a gulf yawned in the Republic, and the oracle said, That will not close till the most precious thing in the land be thrown into it. We 

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threw in ten million dollars for Texas, we threw in all the fugitive slaves we could reach, we threw in honor and consistency, we threw in Webster:--the jaws of the gulf drew one inch nearer together--and the first step of the Slave Power has thrown it all open again, and even the Boston Daily Advertiser says, 'There is reason to fear that the nation is on the verge of another convulsion.' 

On the verge: certainly it is, and has been for fifty years. 

'Our pathway leads but to a precipice, 
And we must follow, awful as it is.' 

There are but two powerful things upon this continent, Slavery and Anti-Slavery:--politics and religion and conscience are the submissive servants of one or the other of these. 

Know all mankind, therefore, that the Anti-Slavery agitation, if it ever ceased, (which it did not,) has recommenced. And the present state of the conflict is clear gain to us. All must see that we act merely on the defensive. Nobody has charged otherwise on the Abolitionists, except one New York editor, who attributes all the trouble to the fact that 'Free Soil Senators thrust themselves forward to answer Mr. Douglas, and thus make it a sectional thing.' Thrust themselves forward, indeed, when the more conservative opponents of the measure were waiting to see how the nation would receive the project, and how much powder and ball could be safely invested in the campaign! With this exception, Abolitionists are admitted to act here on the defensive. The measure makes fanaticism conservative. This is not a new Compromise to save the Union; it is the repeal of an old one, which was made to save it before. Now, I have no great respect for Compromises; but if this nation attaches no more importance to its compromises than it does to its principles, what have we left to trust to? 

Yet is not even this instability a ground of hope? Pass this bill, and it will establish one great precedent. If one compromise may be repealed, so may all others. 'I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.' You remember that Mr. Rantoul warned the Slave Power that the Fugitive Slave Law was a violation of State Rights, a precedent which might, would, could, and should be turned against slavery in the end. And there are many who think that Mr. Calhoun would have opposed that measure, as some Southern men oppose this one, from fear of its ultimate results. Touch this compromise, and you familiarize the most timid people of the North with the idea of modifying all others. Massachusetts may remember her pledge of 1845, to regard all pro-slavery compromises as invalid. When the tide is turned, we shall recall this precedent. The traces round the wild beast's den, of which I spoke, will not be so thoroughly blurred, but Freedom can trace her way out again by the successive footsteps that dragged her in. The repeal of this compromise may yet repeal, first, those of 1850, and then those of the Constitution--and the movers in this measure may have what Dr. Johnson calls the most poignant of all sufferings, 'the remorse for a crime committed in vain.' 

Meanwhile, our work is still the old work of agitation. The Wilmot Proviso failed--but the agitation which it called forth did not fail, for it was one of those 'ordinances of God' who prevented slavery from going into California. Let me quote again Mr Clingman:--

'California, now about to be admitted into the Union, would have been settled by slave-owners--by Southern men--had there not been such a general agitation at the North upon this slavery question, that they have been prevented from moving there from this cause, and therefore California was populated mostly by Northern men.' 

I see no reason to doubt that the same thing may happen now. This I believe to be our greatest hope. Congress is corrupt, and will he for years to come. Still, Congress could be controlled by the people (for Lord J. Russell well said, that it is with nations as with serpents, the tail moves the head,)--if the people only were not corrupt also. That being the case, the only thing possible, is to reform them. The excitement of the process may, as in the case of California, and even of Utah and New Mexico, keep out actual slavery. Slave emigration has a better outlet in Texas and is tending rapidly thither. God wants Nebraska for freedom. But if, as Luther daringly said, 'God himself cannot do without brave men,' it behoves us to be ready to give to liberty, what thousands give to slavery--our lives and our fortunes;--and to add, what slavery is just now in danger of forgetting, 'our sacred honor.' 
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Rev. THEODORE PARKER preached a very eloquent and able discourse, last Sunday, at the Music Hall, on the New Attack upon Freedom, made by Senator Douglas, President Pierce and their allies, in the Nebraska matter. Mr. P. traced, as succinctly as the subject admitted, the successive steps by which the Slave Power of this country has grown, and attained its present enormous magnitude, and predicted other usurpations equally audacious. Too much, he admitted, had been sacrificed by the people of the United States, for the sake of their National Union. We think him in error in his assertion that the People of the North 'do not fear Disunion.' We think that disunion, with its supposed consequences, is the great bugbear which, beyond every thing else, terrifies and appals them;--a thing they fear far more than dishonor, far more than he retributions of Him, whose justice will not sleep forever. They have no cause to fear disunion, but they are alarmed because their sympathies are with the oppressor, and their false position makes them cowardly and weak. Mr. P's discourse was a masterly exposure of the selfish influences which go to sustain Slavery, and was a most earnest appeal to every brave and true spirit to be vigilant and active to withstand those influences. And there was a noble audience to hear. Every part of the vast Hall was filled with the congregation, and for an hour and a half they gave him their undivided attention. We think we have rarely seen a congregation more deeply interested, and it must have afforded no little inspiration to the speaker, to find so many spirits moving with his own. The discourse is to be published--we hope speedily. M. 
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SERMON ON ON THE NEBRASKA BILL. Rev. E. N. Kirk, in his sermon at the Mount Vernon Church, on Sunday last, eloquently and pointedly condemned the Nebraska bill. The Christian Church, he said, should not close her eyes to the reckless ambition of trading legislators, nor cease to pray for their conversion to honest and enlightened principles. He (Mr. K.) had given in his adhesion to the Compromises of 1850, though hardly with a clear conscience, for the sake of the permanent peace and unity of the whole country. The passage of the Nebraska bill would, in his opinion, constitute a revolution.--[Boston correspondent of a New York paper.
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We desire again to remind, our readers, and all interested in the Anti-Slavery cause, that the American Anti-Slavery Society has recently published, in a handsome pamphlet form, the Proceedings of the late Meeting in Philadelphia, at the Twentieth Anniversary of this Society's formation. This was a meeting of great interest, and the record of it, as a matter of anti-slavery history, is of great value, and should be in the possession of our friends generally. It contains 176 pages, and is sold at the low price of 25 cents; less than it cost, when the reporting is included. We hope our friends will immediately take up this edition, and put it into circulation. 
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Mrs. ELLENORA JOHNSON, at No. 10, May street Arch, May street, is very desirous of employment in plain sewing and dress-making. She is quite competent to what she undertakes, and is very deserving of aid. Her husband went to sea more than a year since, and has not been heard from for nearly a year; leaving her and her boy to her sole care; and for several months, during the autumn and winter, she was disabled for work by sickness. For any further information, inquire of S. May, Jr., 21 Cornhill.
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The Printers of the Liberator wish to communicate with Rev. Wm. H. Jones, a colored preacher, who was travelling in this region last fall. Will any one give us his address? 

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MONUMENT TO ARAGO. There will be found at the Anti-Slavery Office a subscription paper for contributions towards the erection of a monument in France to the memory of M. Arago; and it is hoped that all those who love liberty will hasten to contribute their mite. One of the last great acts of his life was the refusal to comply with the demand of Louis Napoleon to take an oath to support the Imperial Constitution; and such was Napoleon's dread of the effect of this protest of the noble old man, that he dispensed with the necessity of his taking the oath. W. I. B. 
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In order to insert in this paper the Sermon which will be found in preceding columns, it was necessary to print it with but slight revision by the author, and without his seeing the proofs. We are requested to make this statement in justice to him. 
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ELECTION OF U. S. SENATOR IN MAINE. William Pitt Fessenden has been elected by the Legislature of Maine, to the United States Senate for the long term. 
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OMISSIONS.--In the Report of the late Bazaar, there was an omission to acknowledge the receipt of £3 3 6, from friends in Manchester, Eng., two pounds of which were a donation to the last Bazaar. Also, two boxes should have been acknowledged from Edinburgh, instead of one. A. W. W.
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CANADA MISSION HELP SOLICITED. 

The subscriber would respectfully inform his friends, that his mission to the Refugees in Canada is in great need of 'MATERIAL AID,' and as he is to spend a few days in Boston and vicinity, he will thankfully receive donations sent to him, in the care of Robert F. Wallcut, 21 Cornhill. HIRAM WILSON. 

Boston, Jan. 31, 1854. 
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TO CORRESPONDENTS.--N. S. of Duxbury. His request will receive attention, on Mr. Garrison's return from New York. 

S. M. Proceedings of EssexCounty meeting received, and on file for insertion. 

We are again reluctantly compelled to defer the official report of the proceedings of the Colored Council; as also the reply of Mr. Sunderland to Mr. Quincy. 
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CORRECTION. In the acknowledgement of monies received at the late Annual Meeting, the name of Lewis McLauthlin, of Pembroke, should have been placed in the list of Donations, and not in that of Pledges. 
[[line]]
DONATIONS RECEIVED FOR CAPT. DRAYTON. 
[[table - 2 columns]]
Pliny Sexton, Palmyra, N. Y., | $ 5 00 
Friends in Cambridge, by E. G. Loring, | 3 00
Friends in Bangor, Me., by Wendell Phillips, | 10 00
[[end table]]
FRANCIS JACKSON. 
[[double line]]
Notices of Meetings, &c.
[[double line]]
LECTURES 
ON THE 
HARMONIAL PHILOSOPHY, 
AND UPON 
PHYSIOLOGICAL VIRTUES AND VICES. 
BY ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS. 

Commencing at the Melodeon, on Sunday, February 12th, at half-past 7 o'clock, P. M., and continuing on the evenings of Feb. 16th, 19th, 21st, 23d, and 26th. The first and second lectures have been given. 

THE THIRD LECTURE 

Opens with 'the analysis of the Human Affections,' shows by means of diagrams their position in the head, how they may be thrown into extreme or inverted conditions, with a description of the consequences, and concludes with a view of the general question of Marriage. 

THE FOURTH LECTURE 

Is concerning the 'Characteristics and Vices of Extremeists.' This class, male and female, is particularly delineated. The young of both sexes, as well as parents, should hear this lecture. The ideas are illustrated with diagrams. 

THE FIFTH LECTURE 

Is concerning the 'Characteristics and Vices of Inversionists.' This Lecture is also very important to young persons. The married particularly should hear it. 

THE SIXTH LECTURE 

Is devoted to an examination of the various 'causes of Extremeism snd Inversionism.' The effects of certain foods and drinks upon the reproductive organs, and of turning night into day, are each considered. The effects of these causes on character are illustrated with diagrams. All should hear it. 

THE SEVENTH LECTURE 

Is concerning the 'Origin and Dependence of Love. The importance of Man, as a being, is considered. Man's relation to lower nature, and the origin of Life. The cause of disaffection among the married, and the remedy. 

THE EIGHTH LECTURE 

Treats of 'The Origin, Nature, and Mission of Marriage. The whole question of Marriage is considered. The Laws of Happiness are defined, and the query, 'What do Harmonialists think of Marriage?'--is answered. 
[[line]]
The whole is illustrated by simple diagrams made from and after interiorily examining different characters of whom the cuts are exact copies. 

It is hoped that these Lectures will do much toward reforming mankind. 

Admission, 10 cents. 
[[line]]
GERMANIA MUSICAL SOCIETY 

WILL GIVE A 

CONCERT

ON EVERY SATURDAY EVENING, 

Until the 10th of March, inclusive. 

Performing alternately Classical Music in one, and Lighter Music in the other Concert. 

A Programme will be published in the Friday afternoon and Saturday morning papers. 

Additional sets and half-sets of Subscription Tickets can be procured at Wade's Music Store. 

Single Tickets, 50 cents each. 
[[line]]
REV. ANDREW T. FOSS, an Agent of the Mass. Anti-Slavery Society, will lecture as follows:--
[[table - three columns]]
Methuen, | Friday eve'g, | Feb. 17. 
Lowell | Sunday | " 19. 
N. Andover | Tuesday eve'g | " 21. 
Andover | Wednesday " | " 22. 
Reading | Thursday " | " 23. 
S. Reading | Friday " | " 24. 
Danvers | Sunday, | " 26. 
[[end table]]
[[line]]
CHARLES C. BURLEIGH, an Agent of the Mass. Anti-Slavery Society, will lecture as follows:--
[[table - three columns]]
Hanson | Friday eve'g, | Feb. 17. 
Abington | Sunday | " 19, 
South Abington | Monday eve'g | " 20. 
Bridgewater | Tuesday " | " 21. 
West do. | Wednesday " | " 22. 
E. Bridgewater; Joppa Vill'ge, | Thursday " | " 23. 
Middleboro', | Friday " | " 24. 
Hingham | Saturday " | " 25. 
South Hingham | Sunday, " | " 26. 
[[end table]]
[[line]]
LORING MOODY and C. LENOX REMOND will hold Anti-Slavery meetings in Manchester, on Sunday next, 19th inst. 
[[line]]
LOWELL.--An Anti-Slavery meeting will be held in Appleton Hall, Lowell, on SUNDAY next, Feb. 19th, at the usual hours. 

Rev. ANDREW T. Foss will address the meeting. 
[[line]]
HENRY C. WRIGHT will lecture before the Worcester A. S. Society, on Friday evening, February 17; and will hold meetings in Feltonville, on the Sunday following, all day. 
[[line]]
LUCY STONE'S Post-office address, for the present, is West Brookfield, Mass. 
[[line]]
LORING MOODY will lecture on anti-slavery in [[table - two columns]]
Haverhill | Sunday, Feb. 19. 
[[end table]]
[[line]]
THE PHONETIC REFORM. 

One of the best reforms--having in view the scientific representation of our language by the use of an alphabet of thirty-seven signs, one for each sound--will result in saving to each million who learn to read, a MILLION OF YEARS, bring out uniformity in pronunciation, make correct spelling as easy as pronunciation, and render education universal. 

THE COSMOTYPE, a journal devoted to Phonetics, and partly printed in the new alphabet, can he procured by addressing fifty cents, prep-aid, to 'ANDREW J. GRAHAM, Box 730, New York.' 

[[end column]]
[[start column]]

The Year 1853 

Has been a year prolific in good Books. 

John P. Jewett & Company, 

Among their numerous issues, have published the following, which have met with great favor from the public, and large sales, and which should be found in every Library. 

Mrs. Child's Life of Isaac T. Hopper,

One of the most intensely interesting books ever published. 10,000 copies in 4 months. 
[[line]]
THE SHADY SIDE,

BY MRS. HUBBELL. 

A thrilling tale of the vicissitudes of a country minister's life. 34,000 copies in 8 months. 
[[line]]
THE MYSTERIOUS PARCHMENT 

OR, SATANIC LICENSE. 

A powerfully written Temperance Tale. Fourth Thousand. 
[[line]]
LECTURES TO YOUNG MEN, 

BY REV. RUFUS W. CLARK. 

First thousand sold in four days. 
[[line]]
Voices front the Silent Land, 

OR, LEAVES OF CONSOLATION FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

BY MRS. H. DWIGHT WILLIAMS. 

A beautiful gift for a friend in affliction. 
[[line]]
THE LAST HOURS OF CHRIST. 

BY W. G. SCHAUFFLER, Missionary at Constantinople. 

A religious work of rare excellence and beauty. 
[[line]]
THE PERSIAN FLOWER, 

Being a Memoir of a daughter of Rev. Justin Perkins, of Persia. A sweet child. 
[[line]]
DR. E. C. Roansls GREAT WORK 

ON THE 

Philosophy of Mysterious Agents. 

The most learned and satisfactory explanation of the spirit rappings yet published. 
[[line]]
The Writings of Prof B. B. Edwards, 

WITH A MEMOIR BY DR. PARK. 
[[line]]
Similitudes from the Ocean and the Prairie.

BY LUCY LARCOM. 

Literally, a book of gems, or string of pearls. 
[[line]]
A SABBATH SCENE.

BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. 

With thirteen Illustrations, by Billings. 
[[line]]
HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD, 

BY REV. WM. M. THAYER. 
[[line]]
PROSPECTUS OF VOL. VIII. OF THE NATIONAL ERA. 

G. BAILY, Editor and Proprietor; J. G. WHITTIER, Corresponding Editor. 

The National Era is an Anti-Slavery, Literary, and Political Newspaper, published on a mammoth sheet, weekly, at Washington, D. C. Its character at this time is so well and widely known, that it is not necessary to enlarge upon it. 

Terms.--Single copy, one year, $2; three copies, do., $5; five copies, do., $8; ten copies, do., $15; single copy, six months, $1; ten copies, do., $8. 

Agents.--Voluntary agents are entitled to retain 50 cents commission on each new yearly, and 25 cents on each new semi-yearly subscriber, except in the case of Clubs. Twenty-five cents is the commission on the renewal of an old subscriber. 

A club of three subscribers (one of whom may be an old one) at $5, will entitle the person making it up to a copy of the Era three months; a club of five (two of whom may be old ones) at $8, to a copy for six months; a club of ten (five of whom may be old ones) at $15, to a copy for one year. 

Money to be forwarded by mail at our risk. Large amounts may be remitted in drafts or certificates of deposite. 

It will be seen that the price of the paper, single copy, is still $2 a year. Agents sometimes allows a subscriber, whom they obtain or renew, the benefit of their commission, so that the subscriber, by their kindness, gets the paper for $1,50 or $1,75, as the case may be. 

All communications, whether on business, or for publication, should be addressed to 

G. BAILY, Washington, D. C. 
[[line]]
THE UNA--A Monthly Journal devoted to the elevation of Woman. 

Published at PROVIDENCE, R. I., and edited by Mrs. PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS. 

Price, ONE DOLLAR a year. 

The second Volume commenced Jan. 1, 1854. 

NOTICES OF THE PRESS: 

'It is filled with original matter, is gentle in tone, steadfast in purpose and tasteful in appearance.'--[Tribune.

'The Editress has enlisted valuable aid, and is herself adequate to the work she undertakes.'--[Phila. Register. 

'We welcome "The Una." May it find its way into many homes, and that its seeds of truth will be a hundred fold.'--[Wor. Spy. 

'The editorials are valuable, and the communications of more than average merit.'--[Gloucester News. 

'We hope it will receive a patronage which will speedily warrant a more frequent publication.'--[Penn. Freeman. 

'We accept it as the inauguration of an idea, which cannot be sneered down nor exterminated, and whose ultimate triumph is certain.'--[Madison Co. Free Press. 

'The writing in the first number contains much that is worthy of the space it occupies.'-- [Home Journal. 

THE UNA can be found at the store of Bela Marsh, Bookseller, No. 25 Cornhill. Price 10 cents single copy. 

'We know of no paper so well calculated to aid the movement of emancipating women.'--[Syracuse Journal. 

'It shall not want a good word from us.'--[Prov. Journal. 

'It comes to us, its handsome pages teeming with intelligence, and the whole sheets giving evidence of what woman may be--of what she should be--a being of thought as of affection.'--[Pittsburgh Dis. 

'Its tone is liberal and decided, but calm and gentle.'--[Cor. of Boston Post. 

'With such an organ, the women can make a, dignified stand in the cause they have espoused.'-- [Yates Co. Whig. 

'It will well say all that is to be said on that side of the question.'--[Agric. Journal. 

'This publication is worthy of special notice for the liberal spirit, broad views and considerate respectfulness, with which it is conducted.'--[National Era. 
[[line]]
THE SACRED CIRCLE. 

Edited by 

HON. J. W. EDMONDS, GEO. T. DEXTER, M. D., AND OWEN G. WARREN. 
[[line]]
PARTRIDGE & BRITTAN, 

300 BROADWAY, 

Are about to commence the publication of a MONTHLY PERIODICAL baring the above title, and devoted to the cause of SPIRITUALISM. 

It will be the purpose of this work to advance Truth in every form and shape; to discuss Radical Moral Reform, Radical Intellectual Reform--the Reform of the times--in their political, mercantile, agricultural, and mechanical relations; to advocate Liberty, positively and unhesitatingly, in the full and in the abstract; to examine the condition of our country in every part, as a whole, and in the several States, Counties, Cities, and Towns; to elevate the existing relations of Society; to form new relations, based an the principles of Spiritual, Philosophy; and to develop those means which shall harmonize every element and instrumentality of Society one with another. 

From time to time THE SACRED CIRCLE will contain such well-authenticated facts as serve to illustrate the laws of the Natural and Spiritual Worlds, and also such communications from Spirits as may be intrinsically valuable. 

The terms of the NEW MONTHLY will be Two Dollars per annum, STRICTLY IN ADVANCE. Subscriptions for six months will be received. All orders for the MONTHLY should be forwarded to PARTRIDGE & BRITTAN. Communications intended for the pages of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editors, care of PARTRIDGE & BRITTAN, office of the SPIRITUAL TELEGRAPH.
[[line]]
 WRITINGS OF W. L. GARRISON. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON--316 pages, duodeo, mo. Price--In cloth, $1.00; extra gilt, $1.25. 

For sale at the Anti-Slavery Office, 21 Cornhill.
[[end column]]